


As Good As You

by KaeCooks



Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: BFFP, Casett, Gen, brettsey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25852705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaeCooks/pseuds/KaeCooks
Summary: My contribution to the August Brettsey writing prompt challenge!
Relationships: Sylvie Brett/Matthew Casey
Comments: 23
Kudos: 84





	As Good As You

“So I was thinking -”

“That’s dangerous.”

“We should totally be dating.”

The drink he’d just taken slipped down the wrong tube, sending him into a wicked coughing fit. 

She went wide-eyed with concern, hurriedly jumping up to grab him a glass of water.

“Casey okay?” Stella asked when she came up to the bar. 

“Uh, yeah,” Sylvie answered quickly. Too quickly. “Just needs some water.”

“Sure that’s all?” Stella asked suspiciously as she filled a glass with ice water. 

“Yup. Thanks,” Sylvie said, snatching the glass and returning to her booth with Matt, who had managed to stop coughing.

“Thanks, Sylvie,” he rasped, taking a long drink from the glass.

“First things first - I think that came out wrong,” she started, a lie. She definitely  _ wanted _ to be dating him, but he’d been married to her best friend. She couldn’t be the one to start something. That would be a serious violation of girl-code. Now if  _ he _ were to ask  _ her, _ she could consider that a viable option.

“You think?” he mused. 

“ _ What I meant,”  _ she continued, partially disappointed that he missed the sincerity in her initial statement, “was we should be dating  _ other  _ people. You know, moving on from whatever bad luck we’ve had in the past instead of letting it drag us down. There’s a speed dating event coming up in Edgewater. I’m going to register for it and I want you to come with me.” 

He pinched the bridge of his nose. A reserved guy like him? There was no way this went well. “When is it? I’ll be there,” he heard himself say, surprising both of them.

She knew better than to argue, excitedly giving him the information before he had the chance to renege on his statement. With any luck, they would each find someone to go out with and she could use that excuse to push away the feelings she’d begun to have for him over the last year.

_________________

Two weeks later, they showed up to the pizzeria in Edgewater. Sylvie had talked him into wearing a grey button-down shirt with a navy blue tie instead of a polo. She said it brought out his eyes and it had taken every last ounce of effort on his part to not blush. He’s not sure when, but it felt like something in their friendship had shifted. He just didn’t know how  _ she  _ felt. 

Once they got checked in, Sylvie was assigned to table 3. Matt gave her a shoulder squeeze and a wink, wishing her luck before she turned to take her seat. 

“You sure you should be here?” Alex, the woman at the registration table, asked him, noticing how he watched Sylvie all the way to her table. 

“My uh, my friend dragged me here,” Matt explained, tearing his eyes away from Sylvie as she walked away, her fingertips brushing the bottom hem of her navy blue halter-top dress.

“Uh-huh,” Alex replied, clearly unconvinced. “Well I’ll start you at table 4 so you can talk to your  _ friend _ at the end.” 

“Thanks,” Matt said, taking the number she extended toward him and pinning it on his shirt. Now that he thought about it, his tie matching her dress probably wasn’t the best choice if they were hoping to convince anyone they weren’t dating. Thankfully, no one else would be seeing them together before it was time to leave.

______________

An hour later, Matt slid into the chair opposite Sylvie. 

“Long time no see,” she joked. 

He laughed at her half-heartedly.

“How did it go?”

He groaned. “Remind me why I let you talk me into this?”

Her face fell, brows furrowing in concern. 

“No need for the long face, Sylvie,” he told her, reaching across the table to squeeze her shoulder. “I just forgot how exhausting socializing with this many new people can be.”

“Oh,” she said, mood visibly lightening. “Did you at least meet some good candidates?”

“I can’t see any of them being a good fit on truck,” he quipped.

She couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up from inside her. “Matt!” she exclaimed through the giggles.

Suddenly, he found himself laughing too. Her happiness was contagious. 

“Really, though, did you meet anyone you like?” 

He shrugged. “There were a couple nice women. I guess I’ll see soon if any of them were interested in me. How about you?”

“I don’t know, Matt, you’re a really nice guy and I’d be lucky to have you, but you were married to my best friend.” 

Wait. What? “I was asking if you met anyone interesting, Sylvie, not if you were interested in me!” he chastised, doing his best to cover exactly how much of a bombshell she’d just dropped on him. She was interested in him? Was she serious? Sure, the two of them had gotten a lot closer since Gabby left but - 

She laughed nervously. Had she really just said that out loud? Shit. Time to try to cover that one up. “I know, I know, but you didn’t give me a serious answer at first either!”

Just then, the final bell rang, signalling the end of the dating event.

“I’ll uh, meet you in the car,” she said hurriedly, bolting out of her seat. She could skip the line of ladies waiting to give Alex their cards with the numbers of the men with whom they wanted their phone numbers shared because she didn’t have any. They were either too boring, too crass, or just not Matt-Casey enough. Had she really just spent the last hour comparing every man she met to Matt? Yes. Yes she had. Heat flooded her cheeks. “Pull it together, Brett,” she reprimanded herself as soon as she was in the safety of her car. He would be back out here soon, but he would probably come out with the number of every woman in that place. Who wouldn’t love Matt Casey? There was no way -

A knock on the passenger window startled her out of her reverie. Matt stood there, a worried look on his face.

“You okay?” he asked when she unlocked the door. “You ran out of there pretty fast.”

“Yeah. Fine,” she said quietly. “How many numbers did you get?”

He didn’t buy that for a single second. “I don’t care about the numbers, Sylvie,” he said, setting his hand lightly on her knee. “You worried me when you disappeared. Please don’t shut me out.”

She turned her head to meet his gaze and her breath caught in her throat. The concern in his eyes would have floored her if she weren’t already sitting down. Matt Casey cared like none other. It was no wonder she couldn’t stop comparing the other men to him. “Okay. Honest answer,” she answered with a thick swallow. 

His brow furrowed deeper, but he stayed quiet. 

“I dragged you here because I was trying to ignore my feelings for you,” she blurted, too scared to look at him. “I tried to pretend like I wasn’t starting to feel more for you than just friendship because Gabby was my best friend and you were married to her. But then I spent the whole damn night comparing every man to you and -”

“Sylvie,” he interrupted softly. “Sylvie, look at me.”

She met his eyes and was relieved to find he didn’t seem to be upset with her.

Once he had her attention, he moved his hand from her knee, cautiously taking her hands in his. “I was comparing everyone to you, too,” he admitted. “Nobody quite measured up.”

“Really?” she asked hopefully, leaning closer to him.

“Truly,” he replied, closing the distance until mere millimetres remained between them. “There’s no one as good as you, Sylvie Brett.”

“There’s no one as good as you, either,” she replied. 

Then he kissed her and it was tender and loving and  _ right. _

“You wanna get out of here?” he asked. “Go have dinner somewhere?”

A smile danced across her face. “I’d love to.”

_ Fin. _


End file.
